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10
SCAVENGING.
In 1917 the Council decided that the responsible duty of collecting and
disposing of the house refuse should be carried out by direct labour, and a special
committee, known as the Highways Committee, was created to deal with this and
other matters.
Prior to the formation of this Committee the whole of the work had been
carried out by contract.
The arrangements have been in the hands of the Highways Committee and
under the control of the Highways Engineer, Mr. James Gair, who has had charge
of this work ever since the decision to discontinue the carrying out by contract of
this most important public health duty was reached.
Both as regards collection and disposal, the arrangements have worked very
smoothly from the beginning, and each year has shown improvement on its
predecessor.
Owing to labour and other difficulties it has not, unfortunately, been possible
to depart from the old practice of carrying out removal once a week only, except
in the case of the main business thoroughfares, large institutions, blocks of flats,
etc., where a daily collection is made or, in special cases, where the refuse is
collected twice or oftener as conditions warrant. As matters improve, however,
it is definitely the intention of the Council to institute a system under which more
frequent collection will be made and, in the meantime, the whole of the dusting
districts are being revised with a view to regularising and increasing the efficiency
of the collection in order to obviate the existing state of affairs so that there
will not be a weekly collection, twice weekly, three times weekly, and perhaps a
daily collection in the same street. The whole of the work is carried out by
means of motor-vehicles, and although an efficient dust cover has not been forthcoming
the Highways Committee have this matter under special consideration,
and it is hoped that an efficient cover will, in time, be available for the whole of
the Council's vehicles.
As regards disposal, the whole of the refuse is taken to the Council's Wharf
and there discharged into a collecting pit. From this it is taken, by means of an
electric crane, into a large screen where it is divided into three constituents, viz.:
Fine ashes (i.e., material below ½ in. size); breeze (i.e., material not exceeding
2 in.); the surplus or debris that comes over the end of the screen.
During the winter months—i.e., from October to March—practically the
whole of the fine ashes and breeze is disposed of to brickmakers, the fine ashes
being mixed with the clay and the breeze being used as material for burning the
bricks. Approximately, from 33 per cent. to 40 per cent. of the total annual
tonnage collected is disposed of in this way.
With regard to the debris, on its way to the furnaces material for which
a sale can be obtained is extracted, and at the present time consists of waste
paper, scrap metals, tins, rags and bones—from 1,500 to 2,000 tons being disposed
of annually. The debris is then burnt by means of furnaces under a "Babcock"
boiler which is used to raise steam for driving the plant. Any material that is in
excess of what can be burnt and is absolutely useless is conveyed by boat to the
Council's shoot at Northolt.
The following table shows the remarkable increase that has taken place since
this work was taken over by the Council, and it would appear that as the efficiency